In light of the World Rugby Cup, McCain introduced McCain Flavour Boss; a line of frozen pizzas marketed as the ultimate game-day meal. The range includes the classic pizza favourites: Extra Cheese Pepperoni, Mega Meat Feast and the quintessential Super Supreme Feed. There’s no shame in admitting that Fennec and Friends stand divided on the topic of frozen foods. Some of us would not be caught dead eating anything from the frozen aisle, while the rest are frequent visitors; be it for taste or simply to satisfy our curiosity as to what culinary creation has ended up in the freezer section. The point is this: when the frozen pizzas landed on our desks, it was a no-brainer. We were going to do a review.
The McCain Flavour Boss pizzas retail for $8.00 a box, slightly more than what you would pay for the cheapest pizza-chain pie, but still affordable. However, the true measure of the pizza lies in its effectivity in being a game-day snack. For this, we decided on several factors to see how it performs namely convenience, prep time and taste.
- Convenience 3/5 – it’s a well-known fact that the appeal of frozen pizzas is its convenience, but how convenient are they really? Let’s paint a picture: you wake up on a sunny Saturday morning, it takes you a minute to realise what day it is. Finally, you remember; your friends are coming over tonight to watch the game and you’re on food duty. Do you A. drive to the nearest supermarket and buy a frozen pizza or B. spend the rest of your morning recovering from last night’s antics and call for pizza delivery? A strong majority voted for the latter, so we deducted a point for that, but then the topic of availability of the flavours came up and we settled on another deduction.
- Prep time 5/5 – the prep time is an easy win. 15 minutes in the oven and you can enjoy a slice of McCain’s Flavour Boss pizza. It’s almost impossible to get wrong, but as a precaution: don’t leave it on for too long. Unless a burnt crust is your thing, then go on ahead.
- Taste 5/5 – to be frank, a strong majority of us did not expect the pizza to be good. Edible? Yes, but genuinely tasty? Not a chance. However, we tasted it ourselves and we can confirm the following: it’s pretty good. The crust? Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The sauce? Flavourful yet not over-powering. The cheese? Bubbly and just the right amount of cheesy to mellow out the salty taste of the pepperoni. Is it better than your favourite $25 pizza? Probably not, but it sure beats the $5 variety out of the water and that’s guaranteed.
Before we end this review, it’s important to say that we believe pizzas fall in the small list of foods that are very personal. Over the years, it’s transformed itself into a renowned snack that people all around the world enjoy. Just take a look at Sweden’s banana and cashew pizza or even China’s durian pizza – all proof that every single person enjoys their pizza a certain way. So, if you try this one and end up not liking it, that’s okay. There’s a pizza out there for you somewhere, and as for us? We’ll keep our ears on the ground for the next best thing.
